Anger Greets State Officials in Quake-Prone Texas Town

January 3, 2014 | 10:56 AM

Azle, Texas – “I’ve got a crack in my hallway,” chuckled Marion LeBert as he stood in the parking lot of Azle High School.

“Oh my! We have sink holes in our yard. And they’ve gotten bigger since these earthquakes,” commiserated Tracy Napier.

The two were among hundreds of townspeople hoping to get answers at a meeting hosted last night by the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas industry regulators. The area, in Parker and Tarrant counties, didn’t experience earthquakes until recently. Now, it’s seen a swarm of over twenty minor ones in the last two months, troubling residents and causing damage to some homes. The earthquakes would be the topic of discussion.

“I just want to kind of sit back and see what [state regulators] are gonna say,” LeBert told StateImpact Texas. “I’ve lived here 20 years and we never had anything like this till they started all the drilling and the fracking and stuff. All I want to do is get the truth out of them.”

As the meeting got underway, it quickly became clear that plan had changed.

Porter announced that the format of the meeting had changed to a “listening session,” and passed the unenviable task of moderating to his Chief of Staff, “in the interest of listening more intently.”

Mose Buchele

An auditorium with a 1,000 person capacity nearly filled up as residents spoke.

The first speaker questioned whether the Railroad Commission should be considered unbiased “since there’s so much oil and gas money that goes into the campaign of elected officials.” The question was met with applause. The response – that the Railroad Commission would not be answering questions – was met with boos.

It was a back-and-forth that characterized much of the evening.

For the next hour and a half residents shared stories of cracked foundations, sink holes, concerns over shifting propane tanks, the cost of earthquake insurance and what the quakes could mean for groundwater quality. The Mayor of the nearby town of Reno, Texas said her community’s City Hall had been damaged. Another resident said she now sleeps in her clothes for fear that she’ll have to run outside in the middle of the night during a quake.

Residents also suggested ways to determine whether disposal wells were at fault.

Mose Buchele

David Porter (second from left) and staff of the Railroad Commission of Texas heard from residents of North Texas communities impacted by a swarm of small earthquakes.

“Why is it we can’t shut the wells down around here for a period of time?” asked Gale Wood, pointing out that this had been done at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. “If we shut them down here for a period of time and nothing happens after a while that would be one way to determine what’s going on.”

A more dramatic solution, shouted from the audience, was to block trucks transporting waste water from entering the area.

At the end of the event, Commissioner Porter promised his Agency would continue to study the issue. As agency staff made an exit, they were followed by a gaggle of reporters. It fell on Milton Rister, Commission Executive Director to answer questions.